Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii landed a key role advising UniCredit Tiriac Bank on acquiring the corporate business of RBS Romania (the Romania branch of The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Edinburgh).

The deal follows a previous agreement between the same financial institutions signed in April 2013. At the time, UniCredit Tiriac Bank announced it had acquired the Retail and Royal Preferred Banking business from RBS Romania, representing approximately 315 million euro in assets and 230 million euro in liabilities.

The transaction now involves the corporate business of RBS Romania and refers to a total portfolio of aggregate assets of around 260 million euro and corporate deposits of around 315 million euro, according to a joint statement released by UniCredit Tiriac Bank and RBS Romania on Tuesday.

Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii acted on behalf of the buyer with a team led by Partner Mihai Dudoiu. He was supported by seven lawyers from the firm’s Finance, M&A, Employment, Competition practice groups.

In a recent statement, practice head Mihai Dudoiu anticipated “an increase of transactional activity in the banking sector and I am not referring to finance, but to the sale of NPLs portfolio from local banks to foreign investors (mainly investment funds)”, adding that he expected more deals to follow as the Romanian financial services market undergoes major changes and consolidation.

The agreement between UniCredit Tiriac Bank and RBS Romania is part of a series of banking matters in which the law firm has been involved during the past 12 months. The Romanian firm acted for Piraeus Bank in relation to the takeover of some of ATE Bank’s assets in a partial de-merger. It also advised Getin Holding, the fastest growing Polish financial group, on acquiring a 100% stake in the Romanian International Bank (RIB). In another deal, Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii acted for Getin Holding in relation to a cross-border transaction by which it acquired full ownership in the Romanian and Polish units of Volksbank Leasing.

Local media recently reported that Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii advised a consortium of international buyers on acquiring large portfolios of NPLs and SPLs worth more than €800m from Volksbank Romania and Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR).